Hello,
I've got a DSM-320. It's displaying a lot of my songs' times as 3:20.
I've looked at Twonky's database and seen the times are correct there.
I can't find any connection between encoders or bitrates.
Has anyone else experienced this or know a fix?
Thanks-
Dave

Yes, it does on mine as well and this is one of a few new bugs (such as no more "Album" option on custom menus) introduced in the last release. Hopefully Christian can fix these soon (especially before work ceases on the NAS versions).

It seems we wait patiently for something to get fixed, only to have something else that was working perfectly be broken on new releases. Welcome to the frustrating world of Twonky.

I don't think this is a new problem. I've been using TV since back in the 1.0 days and this behavior has gone on for me for all of that time. There may have been one version that worked properly.

I haven't asked to have it fixed sooner because it's really not that big a deal. It's a little thing in the middle of an otherwise good program. It just seems that with all the attention being paid to the PS3, it was time to ask.

Still, it's nice to know that the problem exists somewhere else and not just on my own machine. Maybe now I'll stop trying to fiddle around with it to fix it.

Indeed it's not a new problem. However, it is not only a cosmetic bug. When the elapsed time passes 3:20 minutes, my experience is that the song has bo be played completely before it is possible to navigate again. Forward and rewind are not working in this case.

Most of my music was encoded to MP3 using Lame 3.96 & 3.97 set to ABR @ 224 kbps. I had no display problems with these files.

I recently started encoding mp3's files using the "new" VBR default with Lame 3.97; 3.98b6, and noticed the 3:20 min displayed. I am not sure if this is a DSM firmware issue or a Twonky isssue, but while it does not seem to affect MP3 playback (have not tried rew/ff searching), it is rather annoying to see incorrect times displayed when these new files are played...

Update: At first I thought it had to do with the new VBR using lame encoder. When some newer CBR mp3's had the same problem, I then realized a pattern. At the time I started using the VBR with lame, I also started image tagging my tracks, so the covers appeared on screen for my iPod

Check to see if the problem files Listing "3:20" have images or album covers tagged / embedded to the files. This seems to be the cause...

Sorry Shockmaindave, I rushed out my last answer, and it was not clear.

I quickly discovered bitrate was not the problem. Don't bother with that. As you point out, everywhere else the file time is recorded correctly. I found other devices and software also process the file lenghts correctly.

Image tagging to ID3 information is what seems to confuse the DSM-320. Both iTunes and Mediamonkey allow for image tagging (embedding jpg's of album covers, photos, etc) to MP3 files. Once an image is embedded to the MP3 tag, and is read by the DSM-320, "3:20" is displayed on screen, as the device is likely confused by the extra image information.

- " It doesn't seem link D-Link is going to do it for us."

You are probably right. They've done little to enhance, or improve the product so I am not holding my breath.

Ronster,
I did some more experimenting based on your last post.
I took some files that displayed 3:20 times and removed both their album art and folder.jpg files. (I'm using XP.) They remained showing 3:20.

I then tried getting rid of one variable altogether. I took my Twonky server offline and used TVersity. The problem shows up there as well. Still showing 3:20.

I know folks around here get bothered for mentioning other, competing products. I did this only to get insight into this problem. I am a Twonky user since the 1.x versions and will stay that way.

This would seem to indicate that the problem is at the DLink end, so I'm going to try and find out what I can from that side, which won't be much.

It is nice to have someone else currently interested in this. In the past when I've brought this up, it's really seemed to go nowhere.
S. Dave

I tried installing the D-Link Media Server. It amazes me that program continues to suck as badly as it did when I first found Twonky as an alternative. I especially like the alphabetized song titles in album list view. It makes one feel like the designers of that software had never listened to a CD in their lives. Thank you Twonky, for being responsive.

Anyway, I'm off topic. Song lengths are still listed as 3:20. I'm going to try and reencode something--I know MP3s are lossy, so FLACnatics don't need to lecture me--and then try D-Link support. I'm sure they'll get right on it.

I've found that Foobar 2000 can be used to make this times report correctly on the DSM-320. Add mp3s to the library, select them, right-click, and choose "Utils--->Rebuild MP3 stream." Answer yes to the prompt.

It's fairly fast, but the sheer number of files make it take hours....

I don't know what it is rebuilding, but it does remove any album art in the file, so Ronster's original post may be correct. I'll check that by adding some album art onto a fixed file and see if I can break it again.

To save my album art, I used Tag & Rename's Extract file art to folder.jpg feature. Most players can find album artwork in the folder.jpg file.

[quote="Shockmaindave"]
I don't know what it is rebuilding, but it does remove any album art in the file, so Ronster's original post may be correct. [/quote]

Yes, Ronster was right. Adding album art to a working file corrupted the duration tag on the DSM-320, even though it was functioning properly on an iPod and Winamp.

I found when I was done that some of the original tag information was restored by FOOBAR 2000, so I had to go back and clean up after myself a bit. But the problem is fixed. Foobar 2000's right-click Utils-->Repair Data Stream can give you correct times on your DSM-320 again.

I hope this helps more DSM users get the same usefulness from Twonky that I do.